Old video of donkey carrying bodies falsely linked to India-Pakistan conflict
- Published on May 16, 2025 at 06:42
- 3 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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"Pakistanis are searching for their dead soldiers and carrying their bodies on donkeys #OperationSindoor#Indianarmy", says a Hindi-language Facebook post shared May 12, 2025.
The post includes a clip that shows three individuals wearing military uniforms transporting two dead bodies on a donkey along a hilly road.
It surfaced online after India said it had carried out strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan, which led to four days of fighting until US President Trump announced a truce on May 10 (archived links here and here).
More than 70 people were killed in the arch-rivals' worst conflict in decades, sparked by an attack on the Indian-run side of the disputed Kashmir region that killed 26 tourists. New Delhi blamed the attack on Islamabad, which denied the accusation (archived link).
The video also spread on Facebook and X with similar claims -- but it has circulated online since at least November 2024.
A Google reverse image search using keyframes of the video led to a Facebook post published November 21, 2024 by the former deputy speaker of the Pakistan assembly, Qasim Khan Suri (archived link).
The Urdu-language caption reads: "The bodies of two soldiers martyred in the Tirah Valley are being loaded onto donkeys and brought down. How long will the children of the poor continue to give their lives for these generals who have nothing to do with defence, they are busy with their politics, business and buying and selling plots."
According to a November 20, 2024 report from Pakistani media organisation Dawn, at least eight security personnel were reportedly killed and three injured in clashes with militants in the Tirah valley (archived link). AFP reported nine militants were also killed in the fighting (archived link).
The Tirah valley region is located in Pakistan's west-central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Soldiers in the video speak Pashto, a language predominantly spoken in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern parts of Balochistan.
Further keyword searches found Indian media outlets NDTV and News18 also shared the video in late November 2024 (archived here and here).
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